Arlene Francis

This is Arlene Francis' biography written with co-author and friend Florence Rome. It's a fun, witty and charming book. Miss Francis had a long and varied career as an actor but is probably best know for her long association with the 1950s game show, What's My Line. She was on the original show from the second episode in 1950 until the show's cancellation in 1967. She also starred in various syndicated incarnations of the show through the 1970s. The original program starred John Daly (Moderator), Miss Francis, Bennett Cerf, Dorothy Kilgallen and Fred Allen (until his death). She was married for 10 years (1935-1945) to Neil Agnew, a producer at Paramount Studios. She talks about her divorce and her subsequent second marriage to actor/producer Martin Gabel in the book. She and Gabel were married for 20 years (1946-1986) until his death.

She was born in Boston, MA but at 7 years old her family moved to New York City (Manhattan in the Washington Heights neighborhood and she remained a New Yorker until moving to San Francisco in 1993 for health reasons. The book is available at various used bookstores and also via many libraries. My local library (New York Public Library) only has a copy in the Research Division so I had get it through an Inter-loan. It was worth the wait. I've seen many episodes of What's My Line (thanks to Buzzr TV) and I was curious to find out more about Miss Francis.Now that I read her biography, I have read a book (or books in Fred Allen's case) on each of the main panelists, Fred Allen (Much Ado About Me and Treadmill to Oblivion), Dorothy Kilgallen ( Kilgallen: A Biography of Dorothy Kilgallen by Lee Israel), Bennett Cerf (At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf) and now Miss Francis. It makes watching What's My Line episodes even more enjoyable.